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The bulletin of Atlanta University, 1903 no. 135

The bulletin of Atlanta University

NUMBER 135 ATLANTA, GEORGIA MARCH/1903 Suggestions It is sometimes said that a Negro is not a white man with a black skin and that therefore he should not be educated like a white man. Has any one ever defined precisely what this means? Just what difference should be made in teaching a Negro child to read and teaching a white child? In what way should one be taught to write differently from the other? How should each be instructed in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division? Do the principles of grammar and the facts of geography, science and history mean one thing to the mind of the Negro youth and another to the mind of the white? Does one use a different set of muscles from the other in driving a nail or planing a board? How should Caesar, Virgil, and Homer be taught to a Negro student and how to a white student? Or should they never be taught to Negro students at all? Do those who say that a Negro is not a white man with a black skin and so should be differently educated really mean that different pedagogic principles should be employed? Is not their real thought this—that certain lines of study which are freely open to all aspiring white youth should not be so freely open to aspiring Negro youth? In determining what is the best education for any one, is it safer to be guided by the race to which the individual belongs or by the ability which the individual possesses? Do not individual white students differ among themselves in ability, and individual Negro students among themselves, far more than the average white student differs from the average Negro student? If the character or extent of an education is to be determined by race extraction rather than individual ability, where shall we class the vast numbers of "Negro" youth who have practically white skins instead of black? On the whole, is not the statement that the Negro is not a white man with a black skin a truism with little or no pedagogic significance? For statement of the work of Atlanta University see last page. RECOGNITION OF CAPACITY From time to time out of the din of argument over the Negro Problem there comes to us a clear note of encouragement, spoken by one who knows. The Boston Evening Transcript speaks with appreciation of Rev. Edgar Gardner Murphy of Montgomery, Ala., and of his noble advocacy of the cause of education for all the people of his section. His address as a representative of the Southern Education Board, before the faculty and students of Washington and Lee University in Virginia, is spoken of in the warmest terms of praise. Referring to the oft-repeated assertion, made by those who are unfriendly to the efforts to extend education among the Negroes, that the higher education spoils the Negro, the. Transcript says, "Mr. Murphy believes in the higher education of all who are fitted for it. Repression of capacity, he argues, will 'result not in its extinction but in its perversion. A thwarted and a perverted capacity is a peril both to the individual and to the State.' " And so Atlanta University has believed and still believes that as far as possible there should be for every individual an opportunity for education commensurate with his capacity to receive and profit by education. In the same strain are the remarks reported in the Transcript, made by Mr. W. H. Baldwin, Jr., President of the General Education Board, at Mr. Robert C. Ogden's dinner given to prominent educators in New York last January: "Mr. Baldwin said that when he spoke of industrial education he did not mean to disparage higher education, which would provide teachers. The important thing was to give the best education which it would be possible for the recipient to use, which would bring out the best in the student." Dr. Felix Adler's speech on the same occasion shows a fine appreciation of the larger significance of the educational problem. "The problem, Dr. Adler said, was what was to be done with the backward races. The work with the Negro must affect also our work with the brown man and with the yellow man. The object was not to train him only to become useful or innocuous, to be a helot of toil, to be a producer, but under and over all, was the fact that the Negro, however unfit he may be now or for some time to come to exercise the political franchise, must be educated so that in time he may become worthy to be, in full sense, a citizen. We could not endure as a republic if we bad classes among us not educated to assume the duties of citizenship. As moral human beings we cannot afford to treat another human being as if he were less than human!" These are a few of the notes of encouragement that come to the workers, both white men and black, who have not lost faith in humanity. DOES COLLEGE PAY? "To be at home in all lands and all ages; to count Nature a familiar acquaintance and Art an intimate friend ; to gain a standard for the appreciation of other men's work and the criticism of one's own; to carry the keys of the world's library in one's pocket, and to feel its resources in whatever task he undertakes; to make hosts of friends among the men of one's own age who are to be leaders in all the walks of life; to- lose one's self in generous enthusiasm and co-operation with others for common ends; to learn manners from students who are gentlemen, and form character from professors who are Christians — these are the returns of a college for the best four years of one's life." —President Hyde. (Bowdoin.) ------------------------------------------------- Hon. J. L. M. Curry, who died at Asheville, N. C, Feb. 12, was a conspicuous figure in educational work in the South for many years. He had addressed the legislature of nearly every Southern state in behalf of education, was the custodian of important educational interests, and was a member of both the Southern Education Board and the General Education Board. His earnest work and wide experience, so greatly appreciated during his life, will be seriously missed.

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Transcript

NUMBER 135 ATLANTA, GEORGIA MARCH/1903 Suggestions It is sometimes said that a Negro is not a white man with a black skin and that therefore he should not be educated like a white man. Has any one ever defined precisely what this means? Just what difference should be made in teaching a Negro child to read and teaching a white child? In what way should one be taught to write differently from the other? How should each be instructed in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division? Do the principles of grammar and the facts of geography, science and history mean one thing to the mind of the Negro youth and another to the mind of the white? Does one use a different set of muscles from the other in driving a nail or planing a board? How should Caesar, Virgil, and Homer be taught to a Negro student and how to a white student? Or should they never be taught to Negro students at all? Do those who say that a Negro is not a white man with a black skin and so should be differently educated really mean that different pedagogic principles should be employed? Is not their real thought this—that certain lines of study which are freely open to all aspiring white youth should not be so freely open to aspiring Negro youth? In determining what is the best education for any one, is it safer to be guided by the race to which the individual belongs or by the ability which the individual possesses? Do not individual white students differ among themselves in ability, and individual Negro students among themselves, far more than the average white student differs from the average Negro student? If the character or extent of an education is to be determined by race extraction rather than individual ability, where shall we class the vast numbers of "Negro" youth who have practically white skins instead of black? On the whole, is not the statement that the Negro is not a white man with a black skin a truism with little or no pedagogic significance? For statement of the work of Atlanta University see last page. RECOGNITION OF CAPACITY From time to time out of the din of argument over the Negro Problem there comes to us a clear note of encouragement, spoken by one who knows. The Boston Evening Transcript speaks with appreciation of Rev. Edgar Gardner Murphy of Montgomery, Ala., and of his noble advocacy of the cause of education for all the people of his section. His address as a representative of the Southern Education Board, before the faculty and students of Washington and Lee University in Virginia, is spoken of in the warmest terms of praise. Referring to the oft-repeated assertion, made by those who are unfriendly to the efforts to extend education among the Negroes, that the higher education spoils the Negro, the. Transcript says, "Mr. Murphy believes in the higher education of all who are fitted for it. Repression of capacity, he argues, will 'result not in its extinction but in its perversion. A thwarted and a perverted capacity is a peril both to the individual and to the State.' " And so Atlanta University has believed and still believes that as far as possible there should be for every individual an opportunity for education commensurate with his capacity to receive and profit by education. In the same strain are the remarks reported in the Transcript, made by Mr. W. H. Baldwin, Jr., President of the General Education Board, at Mr. Robert C. Ogden's dinner given to prominent educators in New York last January: "Mr. Baldwin said that when he spoke of industrial education he did not mean to disparage higher education, which would provide teachers. The important thing was to give the best education which it would be possible for the recipient to use, which would bring out the best in the student." Dr. Felix Adler's speech on the same occasion shows a fine appreciation of the larger significance of the educational problem. "The problem, Dr. Adler said, was what was to be done with the backward races. The work with the Negro must affect also our work with the brown man and with the yellow man. The object was not to train him only to become useful or innocuous, to be a helot of toil, to be a producer, but under and over all, was the fact that the Negro, however unfit he may be now or for some time to come to exercise the political franchise, must be educated so that in time he may become worthy to be, in full sense, a citizen. We could not endure as a republic if we bad classes among us not educated to assume the duties of citizenship. As moral human beings we cannot afford to treat another human being as if he were less than human!" These are a few of the notes of encouragement that come to the workers, both white men and black, who have not lost faith in humanity. DOES COLLEGE PAY? "To be at home in all lands and all ages; to count Nature a familiar acquaintance and Art an intimate friend ; to gain a standard for the appreciation of other men's work and the criticism of one's own; to carry the keys of the world's library in one's pocket, and to feel its resources in whatever task he undertakes; to make hosts of friends among the men of one's own age who are to be leaders in all the walks of life; to- lose one's self in generous enthusiasm and co-operation with others for common ends; to learn manners from students who are gentlemen, and form character from professors who are Christians — these are the returns of a college for the best four years of one's life." —President Hyde. (Bowdoin.) ------------------------------------------------- Hon. J. L. M. Curry, who died at Asheville, N. C, Feb. 12, was a conspicuous figure in educational work in the South for many years. He had addressed the legislature of nearly every Southern state in behalf of education, was the custodian of important educational interests, and was a member of both the Southern Education Board and the General Education Board. His earnest work and wide experience, so greatly appreciated during his life, will be seriously missed.